Commercial coolers for foodstuffs and beverages are well known. However, it may be that it would be desirable to have a cooling apparatus that may be placed next to the cash register in a grocery or convenience store. Further, rather than having a door that may slide or swing open and closed, it may be desirable to have a cooler that, during the hours in which the store is open, may have an open face.
While this may be desirable, it poses a number of technical challenges. First, the space available on the counter near the cash register may be quite constricted. Second, the cooling apparatus may need to be relatively quiet. These desiderata may tend to suggest that it would be helpful to have a unit that is self-contained, and that may be operated from a standard 120 V, 60 Hz single phase electrical outlet (or, in Europe or other places, 220 V, 50 Hz, single phase), and that a relatively low power unit be employed, both to keep the noise level down, and to reduce the heat rejection to the interior of the store. The combined desired features of an open faced cooler with a low power requirement may tend to be a difficult challenge to meet, since open faced coolers, by their nature, may tend to spill cooled air outside the cooler envelope, and may, conversely, tend to gain warm (and frequently humid) air that may spill in from the surrounding environment. Finally, for a unit of this nature, it may be desirable that the unit be relatively portable, such that it may be carried and installed by one, or at most two, persons of average size and strength.